Anatomijos ir farmacijos istorijos kolekcijų kūrimas bei išsaugojimas tarpukario Kaune
Creation and Preservation Anatomy and History of Pharmacy Collections in Interwar Kaunas

Summary/Abstract: The Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LUHS) exhibits several valuable collections of medical and pharmaceutical history. Two of them began being formed during the interwar period. The collection of anatomy, currently kept in the Museum of the Institute of Anatomy of the LUHS (A. Mickevičiaus St. 9, Kaunas) and the collection of the history of pharmacy, of which only a small part survived and is kept in in the Museum of the History of Lithuanian Medicine and Pharmacy (Rotušės a. 28, Kaunas). Collection of anatomical preparations was first started by the surgeon Jurgis Žilinskas (1885–1957) in 1920, who taught anatomy at the High Courses. About half of this collection has been preserved. Currently it is exhibited at LUHS and used in medical studies. The collection of the history of pharmacy was started during the interwar period by members of the Lithuanian Pharmacists‘ Society and the Lithuanian Union of Pharmacists. They planned to establish the Museum of Ancient Lithuanian Pharmacy, however this collection has not been preserved. The author of the idea for this museum was pharmacist Adam Mačius (1882–1974). 1936 the magazine Pharmacy news (Farmacijos žinios) suggested the idea for the museum and asked colleagues to contribute to its development. Thus, collecting exhibits began and in 1937 a room was rented to exhibit it. However, with the onset of the Soviet occupation, the societies were closed and their property, which was not hidden away in time, was expropriated. During the Second World War, part of the exhibits on anatomy and history of pharmacy were stored in the basement of the Faculty of Medicine of Vytautas Magnus University (Mickevičiaus St. 9, Kaunas). In the spring of 1946, the basement was flooded. Many anatomical preparations have survived, however the exhibits of pharmacy have been damaged. Only a few survived which were kept in the office of Professor Benediktas Šiaulis (1887–1957) rather than the flooded basement. In 1957 the exhibits fell into the hands of Professor Alfonsas Kaikaris (1922–1997). He started to add new exhibits to the collection, which now is the basis of the exposition of pharmaceutical history of the Museum of the History of Lithuanian Medicine and Pharmacy.

• Details
• Contents